David Freeman
◆ Age: 49
◆ Family: Wife, Ginger, married for 27 years; son, Brodie, attends The Citadel; daughter, Sidney is a senior in high school.
◆ Education: Attended Indian Land schools
◆ Occupation: Business owner
◆ Political experience: Serving on Lancaster County Planning Commission (for past year); served four years on Lancaster CountyBoard of Zoning Appeals (three and a half years as chairman); over 30 hours of government training and continuous education

Lancaster County announced Friday it has hired a 25-year economic development veteran to head its new in-house department that will handle business recruitment.
Jamie C. Gilbert comes from Chester, Md., where he has been executive director of the Queen Anne’s County Department of Economic Development for 15 months. He starts work in Lancaster July 18.
County officials said Gilbert’s credentials and experience made him a great candidate for the job, but his people skills, high energy and enthusiasm sealed the deal.

Among the 2016 Republican candidates participating in the 2016 Before You Vote Candidates Forum on Thursday evening at Indian Land’s Inspiration Ministries/CrossRidge auditorium were three candidates running for one of Lancaster County’s least-known elected positions – county auditor.
Allen Blackmon, Suzette Connell Murphy and Susan Hunter Wallace all represent new blood for the office, as each seeks to fill the position of current Auditor Cheryl Morgan, who announced in January she would not seek re-election after more than 30 years.

Lancaster County Council unanimously passed the second reading of its $47.9 million 2016-17 budget Monday night.
Among the highlights: the Department of Social Services will receive funding to expand, a career ladder will be implemented at the County Detention Center, and telecommunication officers will get salary increases.

Candidates for county and national offices will take the stage at a local primary candidates forum next week.
Carolina Gateway and the Indian Land Action Council will hold a Before You Vote 2016 Candidates Forum from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 26, in the Inspiration Ministries/CrossRidge (formerly the City of Light) auditorium, 2001 Prayer Center Drive.
Rick Jiran with Duke Energy will moderate the forum.
All of the candidates in contested races on local primary ballots have been invited.

KERSHAW – Kershaw Town Council unanimously passed first reading of the proposed $3.8 million 2016-17 budget Monday night, though its members aren’t quite sure yet how it will impact taxpayers.
Mitch Lucas, the town’s interim administrator, said he is still waiting on the final county numbers on how much the town will get in property tax revenue for 2016-17.
The town, he said, has received the final index numbers for the mandated Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) credit factor, which provides a property tax rollback for homeowners.

Traffic and growth in the Panhandle was the focus at Monday night’s Lancaster County Council meeting, where the council moved forward with an impact-fee study for transportation.
The council’s vote added traffic to the study, which is already looking at recreation, public safety, EMS and other factors that might be addressed with impact fees paid by residential developers. To enact an impact fee, an impact fee study has to be done. In particular, this study will consider a fixed fee amount to deal with transportation issues caused by new developments.

For the first time ever, if you want to see where every city of Lancaster check is going, it’s just a few mouse clicks away.
The city has upgraded its website to give citizens more detailed information on municipal finances, as well as to provide them with the latest online data available.
“Anybody can see anything that they want about how we handle taxpayer money,” said Mayor John Howard.
City Finance Director James Absher unveiled the changes during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.